6Th Birthday Party Ideas for a Little Girl

A new pump it up opened up somewhere near Morgan Hill.

I received in a mail a postcard for Bounce-a-rama which is now located at the Great Mall in Milpitas. Here is the link to the one in Great Mall and then you can go on there website.

http://www.simon.com/mall/tenant_details.aspx?ID=1250&amp...

I would highly recommend Pump It Up! you can look at the website for locations and prices. Pumpitupparty.com

We've been to lots and lots of 6 year old birthday parties recently (my daughter is in first grade), and by far the biggest hit was an indoor pool party. Here in Fresno, Swim America has a really nice indoor pool and they provide life guards who lead games etc. Maybe they have something like that where you live too? I was surprised that the mom had planned a swimming party in the middle of December, but the water was warm and the kids had an absolute blast! The kids got as tired as they always do at those godforsaken Pump It Up parties, but with the added advantage of it not being super loud (a huge bonus for us mommies!).

Happy birthday to your daughter!

I'm always in favor of tea parties. They can be very inexpensive, can start a wonderful family tradition and will help you replace tea for less healthy beverages.

You can get each guest a cup and saucer from garage sales or thrift stores which can be a party favor to keep. You can find some cute tea gifts for goodie bags online. And pretty packages of herbal teas also make nice gifts.

Your tea can be traditional black tea served with a lot of milk (Cambric Tea) or you can serve herbal tea or warm spiced apple juice from a teapot to make it special. The teapot makes it very special.

The menu can be simple sandwiches cut into shapes, fruit served in fun ways. It's easy to find cookie cutters in the shapes of teapots for simple sugar cookies decorated with sprinkles. If you Google children's tea parties you'll find hundreds of great suggestions.

Invite the guests to dress up. Fancy Nancy is very popular and fancy can be everything from pretty party wear to outrageous costumes.

One special treat is to give the birthday girl a bell to ring when she wants something to be served to her guests -- like a queen in a court of princesses.

There is a Disney CD about the princesses at tea. It's fun music for the party, to sing along or to play musical chairs.

There are several tea storybooks - including one by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York (ex-duchess??) -- and mine!

Another activity is to have each girl decorate her own crown. You provide the glue and glitter.

Once you have your teapot, teacups and saucers, you can have a private afternoon tea every day. Or you can make bedtime special with a calming mint or chamomile tea while you read a bedtime story.

B. D.
Author, The Emma Lea Books
(Illustrated books with a family tea theme.)

Hi S.,

I offer a really fun traveling, stuff-n-fluff animal workshop in which children make their own plush animals! It's called Noah's Ark Animal Workshop and you can find out more about it on my website www.planetfluff.net. It's perfect for a 6 year old birthday party, although children of all ages can do the activity and always have so much fun with it. The children stuff an animal, make a wish on a rainbow star, name their animal, complete a birth certificate for it, and color a take-home bag. Other options include decorating a t-shirt for the animal (I bring the fabric markers), dressing it in an outfit, adding sound chips or other accessories. So check out my site and feel free to give me a call anytime!

L.

I guess my advice would depend on whether your time or your money is more restricted. When my daughter was little, most parties were at our house because I didn't have the funds to hold them elsewhere. I bought a $20 book of party ideas and used it for 3 or 4 years worth of birthday parties. One of my favorites was the aquarium party... buy cheap plastic/paper tablecloths in blues, cut out fish from construction paper, glue the fish to the paper, hang green and brown streamers for seaweed. Make a fish-shaped birthday cake. Have fish-themed games & activities (pin the fin on the fish, shark escape (a game of tag)), serve goldfish crackers. We also did a space-themed party but I don't remember all the others offhand (this child is about to celebrate her 18th birthday!). Also, when she was a little older (maybe 7 or 8?), we had a crafting party where the guests decorated their own picture frames and made collages (saves you $$ too because you don't have to pay for games AND favors, they are one and the same!).

If you have the money, this is probably the first year kids might be up for the challenge of a roller skating or ice skating party. Rock climbing is also a great idea. Also, there are ultra-cool but expensive birthday party ideas at places like the Discovery Museum, the SF Exploratorium, Monterey Bay Aquarium, SF Zoo.

Michael's Craft stores have a space for parties, or another is a children's gym where they can do activities, or at your home, they could decorate cookies with icing and take them home.

For six, my daughter wanted rock climbing, so that is what we did. Most of the places in bay area limit the # and don't have party room.Twisters in Los Altos is where we had it.

The invites was a series of picture cards detailing the party. The top card was a picture of my daughter with the person she was inviting (you and me), then the cards went like this...
map (with route from main highway highlighted)
pants & shoes,
calendar w/date highlighted
clock with start time
rock wall (activity)
bowls of food (snacks)
cake w/candles
clock with end time
then a card had all the info for the non-picture oriented parents.

I put all the cards on a carabener clip that had an O-ring, which slipped over a water bottle. I made a new label for the water bottle (it was a picture of my daughter inverted on a rock wall, I put the place, date, and time around the picture. Where ingredients would go, I put "You, me, and ton of fun!")

They climbed for hours. On the tables I had these magnetic rocks they could build with while they snacked or waited to get back on the wall.

Party favors were little canvas draw string bags (Oriental Trading co.) that look like chalk bags fill with rock oriented stuff- rock candy, pop rocks, geode (no opened), and a soothing rock with a message carved into it (friendship, love, peace, kindness,etc.)

For 5 we did stick ponies- I cut the heads out of wood and bought dowel rods. They decorated them with foam stickers from Michaels. I made up certificates of ownership and when were done decorating and given their pony a name I put the pony's name on the certificiate. Then they had stick pony races-Pony Express- rode around a path avoiding rattles (parents and older kids with dance ribbons) snakes. They had a parade and everyone one a prize - best name, best mane, best gallop, best cantor, best....

This year, 7, we did Rock Video. The girls broke up into groups, headed off into different parts of the house to select a song from a cd (each group was decided by the artist/cd they wanted to do), they practiced words and movements. Then all regrouped and they karaoked while I video taped. I downloaded the video to dvd and mailed it with thank you notes.

I better start planning for 8. It's only 6 mo. away. LOL.
Stephanie

My daughter just turned 6 in December. I took cupcakes and goody bags to her class (her b-day was on a friday) and then that Saturday, she had 2 friends over for a sleepover. I ordered pizza and had fruit for them, then we had a cake and popped popcorn and watched Wall*E. They played pretty hard before pizza and were more than ready to watch a movie in their pj's and sleeping bags. The next morning, I made pancakes, fruit, and bacon, they all got dressed and played until the girls were picked up. She said it was her favorite birthday ever (gotta love 6 yr olds!), but she has had the HUGE party, and the small parties, and of course just her and mom and dad.

Hope that helps!

Hey S. --

Check out Opal'z at www.opalzoap.com -- the owner, Annie, is here on Mamasource (and is one of my best friends).

I had my daughter's 5th birthday there, and it was so much fun, and so easy!! We also go in a few times a year to make soap for gifts and for fun -- even my 16 year old son loves it!

have fun!

J.

I don't know if 6 is too young for this but my mother in law told me that for one of her daughters birthdays, they had a tea party for her. They invited some of her friends (not a ton just a few close ones), had them dress up, and my mother in law and father in law were their "butlers". They gave them little bells to ring when they wanted more tea or sandwiches. I thought that was kind of a cute idea.

Take a look at theme fest in San Jose. It is perfect for that age range because they are so into imagination games. Here is their web-site: http://themefest.com

My kids love it...

My friend JUST had a birthday party for her six year old. It was a rock climbing party! She said it was really fun, so if your daughter is the athletic and adventurous type, try that! If you want more info about where, let me know and I can ask my friend.

Hi S.,

You've had several really great responses already so I'll make mine short. :-) I own a Childrens' Entertainment Company called Fairytale Productions-where I specialize in Princess, Clown and Pirate Parties. If you are looking for balloon twisting, face paintings,crafts and stories, magic, or games, you can call me at ###-###-#### or look me up on the web at www.fairytalepro.com.

You can do a princess spa party where they have their finger anf toenails done. Of course you would need to make sure its ok with the parents. You could set up a station with washable paints and an easel and let them paint a picture. I recently went to a party where they did a bicycle safety party. They closed off their street and a bile safety officer came from the police dept to teach them bike safety. All the kids were then given a bicycle helmut by the officer and donated by the fire dept. All the kids brought their bikes and helmuts from home and rode around the street. It was really cute and taught the kids something.

Opal'z in Palo Alto. The soap making place. They have soap making birthday parties. Super fun and creative. www.opalzoap.com

JoAnne's Fabric and Craft stores does nice, inexpensive parties. I know the location in Concord has a room for parties and they have a party book to choose the projects you want to do. You purchase the supplies (or even bring them from home) and they lead the children in crafts.

We did a pajama party. It wasn't a sleepover, just the PJ's. And they brought their favorite stuffed animal. We played a game where they had to throw their animal onto a pillow from a line... closest wins. They had pizza and decorated twinkies for dessert. I frosted the twinkies. Then at one end of the twinkie (on the plate, not the twinkie) I ripped a marshmallow in half and put a Vanilla Wafer on the sticky part. It looks like a head and the twinkie is the bed. I let the girls to their own decorations and eat it. They loved it.

Build-A-Bear is a great place for a 6 yr olds party. My daughter's friend had her birthday there. The price was reasonable, with several options for the kids. Both girls and boys can attend. The staff does a GREAT job interacting and making sure all the kids have fun participating. Everyone had a great time!

Have you thought of a fairy party? you can find wings & wands pretty cheap and give each of the little girls their own set. You can also have a fairy come out and do face painting? Just a couple of ideas :) I LOVE themed parties and have about 10 years experience in putting them together... Hope this helps!

Good Luck, :)
T.

When one of my kids was 6 I threw a baking party. There was some set-up to it, of course, and every kid had to have something to put in the mixing bowl.

While the cake was baking the kids went outside to play. After the cake came out of the oven they went wild with all sorts of edible decorations. After washing of hands and such, they ate the cake they had made and decorated, then went home.

One of the things we did to make the party complete was to purchase a white apron (from a restaurant supply house, they are fairly inexpensive), then put each child's name on one in fabric paint. These served double duty: the kids covered their clothes with their personal aprons, and then took them home. No goody bag.

It's several years later and the kids agree it was one of the best fun parties ever.

Hi S.,

I was in line at Target the other day, and the lady in front of me had a little girl who looked to be about 6 years old. They were buying all these wonderful pink and purple plastic "spa baskets" from the dollar section! They also had these little Valentine themed "pedicure kits" for little girls...also from the dollar section, along with some pink and purple shredded paper from the party dept.

I bet it would be fun for the girls to have a little "Spa Party", where they got their toes and fingernails painted, and had little cups of hot cocoa, while listening to some silly and fun music.

Cupcakes are always fun, instead of a cake, and there are LOADS of toppers that you can add to them these days. Even sprinkles on top are a lot of fun. You could even let them frost and decorate their own cupcakes. That way, all you have to do is have the cupcakes ready.

If you have access to some fun dress-up clothes, that would be a fun game...where they have the dress-up relay. Have two teams of girls, with 1/2 of each time on opposite sides of the room. They would have to race to dress up in the clothes, and then come back to the next person in line, take off the dress-up clothes, have the other person put them on, and run back to the other end and start it all over again.

Hope these ideas help. I'm sure that she will be thrilled with anything, and will love that you want to help her celebrate her birthday in such a fun way.

When my daughter was that age I bought a bunch of inexpensive make-up, mirrors and nail polish and let them go crazy doing make-overs on themselves. Then I photographed and printed the results. The girls got to have the make-up (in little cases) as party favors. At the time, a few parents were nervous bringing home the play make-up, but most of them still have the photos from that party on their desk, refrigerator, wall, etc.

A polka dot party!
We had this party and asked everyone to wear polka dots! All the food was dot shaped... hamburgers, cupcakes, etc... and we did old fashioned traditional party games. three legged race, gunny sack race, etc. The favor was a big huge polka dot... a hoola hoop! Very very fun. Oh, and we cut out big felt polka dots and put them all over the walls. Very very cute and cheap.